Why should I contribute to open source?
How will contributing to open source help me as an individual?
We all are asked this at any open source meet-up or conference. Questions that are very valid (even if they sound selfish). In fact, because they sound _selfish_ that’s why they _are_ much more genuine.
These questions generally prop up when you _preach_ (engineering) students to get involved with open source projects — to contribute code, bug fixes, documentation, etc.
We can talk as much about the principles of Open Source and Free Software, the philosophy, why freedom matters,...